The world of telephony was far more diverse before the iPhone became the pinnacle phone, creating buzz equivalent to Supreme in its heyday, with kilometer-long lines and waiting lists for each new iteration. Although Kanye West used his flip phone (re-launched by Samsung in full ’00s wake last year), which was the first technology product to signify social standing, and fashion experimented with branded mobile phones during this time, the Blackberry was declared out of production. It is Samsung’s revival model that has lately resurrected the fusion of cutting-edge technology and high fashion that was first achieved with New York designer Thom Browne last year. An extremely effective example of telephony design that results from a shared desire to “break with convention and allow individuals to celebrate their individuality” is the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 Maison Margiela Edition. The Parisian high couture house Maison Margiela was the subject of this partnership for the first time. With this collaboration, which fuses cutting-edge technology and distinctive design, we want you to express your genuine honest self and celebrate what makes you special, said Stephanie Choi, EVP and CMO of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics.

With a touch of grey, Maison Margiela’s signature “solid white” matt surface has been incorporated into the smartphone, and 3D technology has been used to capture the feel of a rough brushstroke. The phone also uses the brand’s famed décortiqué process, which involves peeling an object’s exterior layers to reveal its inner core, which is distinguished by thin, transparent lines that represent the phone’s internal circuitry. There are also two famous phone cases available: a one-of-a-kind leather cover that showcases Maison’s renowned whitewash process and is imprinted with the four-dot logo, and a reimagining of the signature number coding ring that echoes Maison’s DNA. The box itself is a piece of art since it plays with the concept of inversion by displaying the inner material’s rough surface.

A simplistic style that brings to mind Y2K and the craze for “designer” smartphones. There was a time when mobile phones were truly a luxury item on par with it bags or the most recent pair of Prada boots, from the former model Kimora Lee Simmons’ Motorola i883 Baby Phat, worn by Janet Jackson, Lil’ Kim, and Britney Spears, to Juicy Couture’s pastel pink T-Mobile, to the Dolce & Gabbana Motorola Razr V3i in 2005 or the Nokia 7270 Limited Edition by Versace in baroque print. You can learn a lot about a person’s mentality (and cash account) by merely looking at their phone, from career men with Blackberries to sneakerheads with the Supreme-branded BLU Burner Phone to heiresses with the most recent $85,000 Dior Phone Réverie. Designers continue to brand and equip a variety of gadgets with their logos and identities that are more distinct by an aesthetic fetish, from Prada to Moschino via Thom Browne, in order to produce a collector’s item to flaunt while keeping Apple’s most recent release in our pockets.